Crisis of Governance in Maya Guatemala: Indigenous Responses to a Failing State

Description

The possibility of violence beneath a thin veneer of civil society is a fact of daily life for twenty-first-century Guatemalans, from field laborers to the president of the country. Crisis of Governance in Maya Guatemala explores the causes and consequences of governmental failure by focusing on life in two K’iche’ Maya communities in the country’s western highlands. The contributors to this volume, who lived among the villagers for some time, include both undergraduate students and distinguished scholars. They describe the ways Mayas struggle to survive and make sense of their lives, both within their communities and in relation to the politico-economic institutions of the nation and the world. Since Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war ended in 1996, the state has been dysfunctional, the country’s economy precarious, and physical safety uncertain. The intrusion of Mexican cartels led the U.S. State Department to declare Guatemala “the epicenter of the drug threat” in Central America. Rapid cultural change, weak state governance, organized crime, pervasive corruption, and ethnic exclusion provide the backdrop for the studies in this volume. Seven nuanced ethnographies collected here reveal the complexities of indigenous life and describe physical and cultural conflicts within and between villages, between insiders and outsiders, and between local and federal governments. Many of these essays point to a tragic irony:the communities seem largely forgotten by the government until the state seeks to capture their resources—timber, minerals, votes. Other chapters portray villages responding to criminal activity through lynch mobs and by labeling nonconformist youth as gang members. In focusing on the internal dynamics of poor, marginal communities in Guatemala, this book explores the realities of life for indigenous people on all continents who are faced with the social changes brought about by war and globalization. Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Preface and Acknowledgments Prologue • James H. McDonald and John P. Hawkins Introduction: Crisis of Governance and Consequences of Indeterminacy in Postwar Maya Guatemala • James H. McDonald and John P. Hawkins 1. “The System Changed to Voting”: Respect, Electoral Democracy, and the Public’s Anger toward Mayors in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán • Donald Y. Dracoulis, John P. Hawkins, James H. McDonald, and Walter Randolph Adams 2. “Saved from Being Lynched”: Reinvention of Customary Law in Nahualá • Eric Ruiz Bybee, John P. Hawkins, James H. McDonald, and Walter Randolph Adams 3. A Land Divided without Clear Titles: The Clash of Communal and Individual Land Claims in Nahualá and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán • Curtis W. Dabb, James H. McDonald, John P. Hawkins, and Walter Randolph Adams 4. “They Do Not Know How to Take Care of the Forest”: Analyzing State-Sponsored “Decentralization” of Forest Management in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán • Jason M. Brown, John P. Hawkins, James H. McDonald, and Walter Randolph Adams 5. Barriers to the Political Empowerment of Nahualense Midwives • Rebecca A. Edvalson, John J. Edvalson, John P. Hawkins, James H. McDonald, and Walter Randolph Adams 6. Gangs, Community Politics, and the Social Production of Space in Nahualá • John J. Edvalson, James H. McDonald, John P. Hawkins, and Walter Randolph Adams 7. “There Is No Respect Now”: Youth Power in Nahualá • Tristan P. Call, John P. Hawkins, James H. McDonald, and Walter Randolph Adams Conclusion: Fear, Control, and Power in an Unpredictable World • James H. McDonald and John P. Hawkins References List of Contributors Index